Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws • Hacker News Board

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#41

Post by sandworm101 » Wed, Nov 19, 2025, 4:24 PM UTC

radicalbyte wrote: post #35

bitpush wrote: post #16

Incredible to see the 180 both from EU and also from the HN sentiment. HN was cheering on as EU went after Big Tech companies, especially Meta. Meta is no perfect company, but the amount of 'please stick it to them' was strong (I reckon that is still a bridge too far for a lot of folks here). Even extreme proponents of big tech villanery in the US (Lina Khan's FTC) is also facing losses (They just lost their monument…

There has been a change in the community here over the last decade, we've lost a lot of the hacker spirit and have a larger proportion of "chancers", people who are only in tech to "get rich quick". The legacy of ZIRP combined with The Social Network marketing.

The hackers are still here, lurking in the shadows. Bananas. They are just tired of being berated by fanboys anytime they criticize the will of the tech bros. There is no fun in typing out a well-researched answer only to face a torrent of one-second "nah, you are wrong" replies mixed in with AI slop. Bananas.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#42

Post by weberer » Wed, Nov 19, 2025, 4:24 PM UTC

Symbiote wrote: post #25

Does anyone have a link to the proposal, preferably on the EU website? I'd like to see for myself, as I don't consider moving the consent method from the webpage to the browser settings "watering down" — it's the opposite.

They seem to be reporting on two drafts that were leaked by Netzpolitik.

https://cdn.netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/2025/11/EU-Kommission-...

The official website mentions these documents, but for some reason doesn't let you view them, saying "It will be possible to request access to this document or download it within 48 hours".

https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/documents-register/detail?...

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#43

Post by yardie » Wed, Nov 19, 2025, 4:24 PM UTC

GardenLetter27 wrote: post #27

About time. Startups and innovative business simply cannot get investment when there's the constant risk of a new AI Act massively increasing compliance and legal costs. But it's not enough - they need to completely repeal the DSA, AI Act, ePrivacy Directive, and Cybersecurity Act at least. And also focus on unifying the environment throughout the EU - no more exit taxes, no need for notaries and in-person verbal agr…

> no need for notaries and in-person verbal agreements, etc.

With the advancement of AI being used to commit fraud through chat, video, and audio calls I think we're at the precipice of needing to in-person verbal agreements again.

And I thought the harmonization of markets in the EU would have reduced the red tape but some industries are built on it and will complain quite vocally if their MP makes any move on it.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#44

Post by webstrand » Wed, Nov 19, 2025, 4:28 PM UTC

GardenLetter27 wrote: post #30

basisword wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It worked to highlight the insane amount of tracking every fucking website does. Unfortunately it didn’t stop it. A browser setting letting me reject everything by default will be a better implementation. But this implementation only failed because almost every website owner wants to track your every move and share those moves with about 50 different other trackers and doesn’t want to be better.

You can just set your browser not to send whichever cookies you don't want to. Cookies are a client-side technology. Why does the government need to be involved?

Not all cookies are bad for the user, for instance the one that keeps you logged in or stores the session id. Those kind were never banned in the first place.

Blocking cookies locally doesn't allow you to easily discriminate between tracking and functional cookies. And even if the browser had a UI for accepting or rejecting each cookie, they're not named such that a normal user could figure out which are important for not breaking the website, and which are just for tracking purposes.

By passing a law that says "website providers must disambiguate" this situation can be improved.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#45

Post by philipallstar » Wed, Nov 19, 2025, 4:28 PM UTC

theptip wrote: post #34

> users would be able to control others from central browser controls that apply to websites broadly. Great to see this finally. It’s obviously the way it should have been implemented from the beginning. We still see this technically myopic approach with things like age verification; it’s insane to ask websites to collect Gov ID to age verify kids (or prove adulthood for porn), rather than having an OS feature that c…

> (Parents should opt their kids phones into “kid mode” and this would block age-sensitive content. The law just needs to mandate that this mode is respected by sites/apps.)

Good kid mode[0].

[0] https://www.lego.com/en-gb/product/retro-telephone-31174

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#46

Post by yardie » Wed, Nov 19, 2025, 4:30 PM UTC

bpodgursky wrote: post #37

yardie wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> due in part to burdensome privacy regulations. A large part is due to their approach to startup investing and chronic undercapitalization. GDPR is coming up 10 years now and the worries about it were overblown. What hasn't budged is Europe is very fiscally conservative on technology. Unless it's coming from their big corporations it's very hard to get funding. Everyone wants the same thing, a sure bet.

I think this is a very rosy framing. GDPR showed that once you are a ten-billion dollar company, your compliance team can manage GDPR enough to enter the market. For a startup , starting in the EU or entering the EU early is still extremely difficult because the burdens do not scale linearly with size. This means that yes, US tech giants can sell into the EU, but the EU will never get their own domestic tech giants b…

My company did not retain customer data or retained very little. So compliance for us was very simple. If your business venture relies on that PII data you're going to have a hard time. And I'm not exactly sympathetic since I'm regularly getting notified from HaveIbeenPwned about another PII leak.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#47

Post by GardenLetter27 » Wed, Nov 19, 2025, 4:32 PM UTC

yardie wrote: post #43

GardenLetter27 wrote: post #27

About time. Startups and innovative business simply cannot get investment when there's the constant risk of a new AI Act massively increasing compliance and legal costs. But it's not enough - they need to completely repeal the DSA, AI Act, ePrivacy Directive, and Cybersecurity Act at least. And also focus on unifying the environment throughout the EU - no more exit taxes, no need for notaries and in-person verbal agr…

> no need for notaries and in-person verbal agreements, etc. With the advancement of AI being used to commit fraud through chat, video, and audio calls I think we're at the precipice of needing to in-person verbal agreements again. And I thought the harmonization of markets in the EU would have reduced the red tape but some industries are built on it and will complain quite vocally if their MP makes any move on it.

The law in Germany comes from when many people couldn't read, so all contracts must be read by a notary to both parties in-person.

The bizarre thing is now they advertise how fast they can read! Like it serves no purpose other than giving notaries and lawyers a slice of all transactions.

Europe is full of backwards stuff like this - where the establishment interests are so strong, it cannot be adapted for modern times. From blocking CRISPR and gene editing crops (while allowing the less controlled but older technology of radiation treatment), to blocking self-driving cars.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#48

Post by stavros » Wed, Nov 19, 2025, 4:33 PM UTC

surgical_fire wrote: post #26

bitpush wrote: post #16

Incredible to see the 180 both from EU and also from the HN sentiment. HN was cheering on as EU went after Big Tech companies, especially Meta. Meta is no perfect company, but the amount of 'please stick it to them' was strong (I reckon that is still a bridge too far for a lot of folks here). Even extreme proponents of big tech villanery in the US (Lina Khan's FTC) is also facing losses (They just lost their monument…

I live in EU. I am totally in support to force Meta down through government's big stick. While they are at it, I hope they do it to the other big techs too. Being a "hacker type" (whatever that means) does not equate to being complacent to these companies abusing their economic power.

Yeah, seconded, and I also live in the EU.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#49

Post by GardenLetter27 » Wed, Nov 19, 2025, 4:33 PM UTC

radicalbyte wrote: post #35

bitpush wrote: post #16

Incredible to see the 180 both from EU and also from the HN sentiment. HN was cheering on as EU went after Big Tech companies, especially Meta. Meta is no perfect company, but the amount of 'please stick it to them' was strong (I reckon that is still a bridge too far for a lot of folks here). Even extreme proponents of big tech villanery in the US (Lina Khan's FTC) is also facing losses (They just lost their monument…

There has been a change in the community here over the last decade, we've lost a lot of the hacker spirit and have a larger proportion of "chancers", people who are only in tech to "get rich quick". The legacy of ZIRP combined with The Social Network marketing.

Hackers should know the government is never on your side.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#50

Post by josefritzishere » Wed, Nov 19, 2025, 4:34 PM UTC

ch4s3 wrote: post #4

josefritzishere wrote: post #3

This is criminal.

To make the popup requirement for non critical cookies in GDPR less onerous? Or the change in data operation recording requirements that will kick in at a company size of 750 employees instead of 250? I assume you mean the AI related stuff?

I work in data privacy and I really hold the GDPR in high esteem. The "Ai stuff" is worrisome. The UK has left the EU and rolled back privacy rights. The EU is experiencing the slow erosion of privacy rights; and the US is a morass of highly variable state-level rights. I had such high hopes when the CCPA passed.